Thursday, January 08, 2009

You apparently won't have to travel out of Nebraska to spot a mountain lion.

Even though the mountain lion population was once wiped out in the state, the animals are now making a comeback.

According to Sam Wilson, with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the majority of confirmed mountain lion reports come from the Panhandle. However, he says the possibility of a person encountering an animal like this is rare.

"99.9% of the time, a mountain lion senses a human and they will run away," Wilson says. "So in the chance that you see a mountain lion, and it doesn't run away, the first thing you should do is make yourself look big as possible and don't turn around and don't run. Leave the animal an avenue for escape, and hope it runs away."

A meeting at the public library in Beatrice Wednesday evening addressed the topic of mountain lions in the state.